Prompt
by Lady Salazar
Summary: Short Bleach prompts. First: Rational, a look at Hollows and Shinigami from Ichigo's perspective. Second: Relation, wherein Masaki hardly understands her own reasons.
1. Rational

Just a drabble thing. I didn't originally intend to post it, given its shortness... but I was convinced otherwise. Anyone who reads my stuff regularly could probably guess who by. I'll probably make this my dumping grounds for whatever crap I decide isn't worth an actual story.

Anyway, Bleach is not mine. Otherwise, something of the conflict in the drabble would've been shown.

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_**Prompt 1: Rational (Hollow and Shinigami, contrasts, complete)**_

Ichigo had nightmares.

He never told anyone; he thought the vizard probably knew, but he doubted they knew the entirety of the affair. They probably thought they knew, but he knew they didn't.

Or maybe they did. It would certainly explain a lot.

Oh, he was getting confusing, wasn't he? Back to the start, then.

_Ichigo had nightmares. _

There was the Hollow, it's taunting voice, drawing closer, drawing closer, threatening to swallow him up. It wasn't fear for his life that led him to fear the monster that shared his features. He had long surpassed a fear of death. Not that he'd be dead in the utterly final since of the word.

But he still nurtured a fear for his sanity.

While he might not admit it often, Ichigo did love the fight. He enjoyed it, occasionally lost himself to it. Keyword? Occasionally. He didn't have the voracious _need _to battle the Hollow displayed. He didn't _want_ that need. He wasn't Kenpachi; he couldn't live without a moment's peace.

And the Hollow was worse than Kenpachi.

Kenpachi wanted to fight him. The Hollow wanted to take his sanity and do as he wished.

It was no surprise he both hated and feared it.

Rukia didn't understand a thing.

Sorry, that must have seemed random. He had just recalled something she mentioned once, about Hollows and Shinigami. "We are opposites, one the incarnation of instinct and savagery, and the other the incarnation of all that is good and rational." At their purest, she had also said, a Shinigami was not to be plagued by needless emotions, was to be able to judge and react through nothing but rationale.

And that, Ichigo thought, was even worse than sheer primal instinct given form.

But he had gotten off topic. Again.

_Ichigo had nightmares. _

And they weren't just of the Hollow.

At times, it was himself. Kurosaki Ichigo, shinigami, in the black shihakusho, with the orange hair and brown eyes. No startling physical differences, no grayscale reversal. Just him. But not. Because he wasn't a drone. Wasn't some thing with a monotone voice, no conception of emotion but arrogance and contempt, _able to judge and react through nothing but rationale _with consummate, unyielding, merciless _skill_. Without even a fraction of instinct. Without fear of death, fear of pain, fear of loss. Fear of _anything_.

In other words, shinigami at his purest.

Frankly, the Shinigami terrified Ichigo beyond anything the Hollow could ever manage.

He had seen the Hollow and the Shinigami fight. Instinct versus purpose, fear and the fearless, equal but _not _because without the Hollow's copy of Zangetsu it would have long ago been destroyed. He didn't begrudge the Hollow the weapon, oddly, because he preferred the Hollow have it and hold its own than not and be destroyed. He didn't want to be stuck with the Shinigami.

The Hollow was an animal. Primal instinct. It had an excuse.

The Shinigami?

Well, what was a man without morals?

Ichigo answered - a monster.

_**Ichigo had nightmares.**_

And in the nightmares, he was a monster.

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Ah, irony. A lot of irony and subtlety in this piece, short as it was.

Feel free to suggest prompts. No promises, but if something piques my interest I might cook something up... eventually.


	2. Relation

Credit for the prompt goes to Tsurai no Shi, who suggested three, of which one was "Masaki." Left things rather ambiguous, so I took it and perverted it into something weird. Amazing actually... didn't take me long at all. Shorter than the last one, though.

_**

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Prompt 2: Relation (Masaki, reasons)**_

Kurosaki Masaki had her reasons for everything. Even if she didn't know them.

Masaki was an only child, and she had always been happy that way. She never wanted to be an older sister (despised the thought with prejudice, actually, mixed with a whisper of sadness) and she had never intended to be a mother either, something her parents never had argued against, believing it to be a phase she would grow out of until they died in a car crash.

It wasn't long after that she met Isshin. She thought he was a crackhead and a crazy, and wondered how he had ever gotten through college - but in the end, it hadn't mattered.

Masaki met Isshin and _something _about him was familiar. Something was comforting, something was powerful, something was hypnotic. Of course, there was something off… something that rang out hard and fierce and raging discord that was incongruous to the gentle and delicate yet deadly efficiency that the _something _should have been.

It was that something that kept her interest despite his at times infantile behavior; it was that something that allowed her to eventually find his childishness endearing. It was a secret she held close to her heart… that it was that something she fell in love with, long before she loved Isshin himself.

And it ate at her, an awful guilt that she had abused her husband's love _again_, even though she'd never been married. Five years passed, five years of worthless living, before she held in her arms a little baby boy Isshin was determined to name Ichigo and her conscience appeased.

Finally, Masaki was giving the man that loved her something (and it truly was _something_, she felt it, more powerful but in some way more placid than Isshin, yet still off from what her memories _that weren't memories_ said it should be) instead of merely taking.

She was giving instead of leaving.

She would not be selfish.

Ichigo grew up. Yuzu and Karin were born. They were happy, all so happy. Sure, Ichigo talked to people that weren't there and didn't know the difference, the twins cried a lot and Isshin was too immature to take care of them and they all demanded her attention, but they were happy.

Masaki was happy to give. She was happy, and tried to hide the strange wistful feeling that wished she could have been happy with _him _for more than five years.

Then Ichigo turned nine.

It was raining, and he saw someone by the river… for once she saw the person as well. And the little girl filled her with dread and she knew Ichigo was in danger and she wanted to run.

Run, Masaki. Save yourself. One of you will die.

Then she remembered leaving someone else and the endless grief and guilt and sorrow that had resulted, and Masaki dashed forward and pushed her son out of the way.

While she had never been a good sister, not even worthy of the name, she would be a good mother.

Masaki wondered if she would see _him _again (remembered pale skin, sharp features, dark hair dark eyes) before the jaws clamped down on her torso and she knew no more.

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Yep... you guessed it.

Hisana!Masaki. How's that for messed up? Or for messing things up. Either way works.

Feel free to suggest prompts. You might get (debateably) lucky and get a quick reply... but once again, no promises.


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